Bill Belichick believes Jets’ firing of Robert Saleh was premature but ‘not out of character for the owner’

The New York Jets became the first team to fire their head coach in 2024 when they handed Robert Saleh his walking papers after just five games played. The last NFL head coach to be fired five games into a season was Matt Rhule in 2022.

The Jets were 2-3, and it’s fair to say things weren’t going well. They were upset by the Denver Broncos in Week 4 after scoring just nine points, then lost in London to their former No. 3 overall pick Sam Darnold and the Minnesota Vikings. Jets owner Woody Johnson had enough, so he pulled the trigger, fired Saleh and named defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich as interim coach.

This was a decision that shocked some. Saleh was certainly a head coach on the hot seat, but firing him just five weeks into the season? NFL legend Bill Belichick didn’t understand that.

The former New England Patriots leader recently commented on Saleh’s dismissal on the show “Let’s Go!”. Podcast:

“It’s definitely difficult. Especially this situation. You know, it’s one of the best defensive teams in the league. Robert made them like that,” Belichick said, via ESPN. “They were 32nd in his first year and were consistently in the top five, top three in most categories. So he’s done a great job on that side of the ball. And then they had some problems at quarterback, and.” Now Aaron is back, but he hasn’t played football for a year.

“For me, it just felt a little too early to pull the shutter. But not untypical for the owner. Woody has always been difficult to predict what he will do. Some of it is just hard to understand,” but I think Saleh did a good job there. He brought a strong culture to the defense and obviously wasn’t quite there yet, but there was still a long way to go in the season so that seemed like a premature move.

Saleh’s defense wasn’t the problem. It was the anemic offenses that stood out. The Jets averaged the fewest points per game in the NFL, with Saleh leading the way (17.3). It’s true that he played pretty poorly at quarterback, but with Aaron Rodgers healthy again, that should change. For five weeks, New York officials simply didn’t see enough to be sure about the team’s direction.